Keynote Speakers
July 20, 2026 (Day 1)
10:30 – 11:00 am – Opening
Dr. Ignasi Florensa Ferrando
Director
Escola Universitària Salesiana de Sarrià (EUSS School of Engineering)
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Dr. Ignasi Florensa is the Director of the Escola Universitària Salesiana de Sarrià (EUSS), a prominent engineering school in Barcelona affiliated with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). In his role as Director, he leads the strategic management and academic development of the institution, fostering a pedagogical model known as “Engineering by Doing,” which emphasizes practical competence and holistic student development.
Dr. Florensa holds a Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in the Didactics of Mathematics, as well as an Industrial Engineering degree. This multidisciplinary background allows him to bridge the gap between technical engineering requirements and educational theory. Before assuming the position of Director, he served in various academic and management roles within the university, contributing significantly to the definition of engineering curricula.
As a researcher, Dr. Florensa is an active member of the international community in Mathematics Education. His research framework is grounded in the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD). His primary research interests focus on the design, implementation, and analysis of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) environments, specifically through Study and Research Paths (SRP). He investigates how mathematical modeling can be effectively integrated into engineering education to improve future engineers’ professional competencies.
Dr. Florensa has authored numerous papers in high-impact scientific journals and is a regular contributor to international congresses such as the Congress of European Research in Mathematics Education (CERME) and the International Network for Didactic Research in University Mathematics (INDRUM). He is dedicated to advancing engineering education by promoting teaching methodologies that connect rigorous mathematical tools with real-world engineering problems.
11:00 – 11:30 am, July 20, 2026 – Keynote
Prof. Dr. Dursun Delen
Regents Professor at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
and Professor at Istinye University, Istanbul, Turkey
Short Bio
Dr. Dursun Delen is a world-renowned thought leader in the fields of artificial intelligence, data science, and business analytics. He currently serves as the William S. Spears Endowed Chair in Business Administration and the Patterson Family Endowed Chair in Business Analytics at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business, where he is also a Regents Professor of Management Science and Information Systems and the Director of Research for the Center for Health Systems Innovation. Before joining OSU, Dr. Delen spent five years as a research scientist at a private research and consultancy company, where he led groundbreaking advanced analytics projects funded by prestigious federal agencies, including the Department of Defense and NASA. His prolific scholarship is evidenced by more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and 12 influential books, making him a sought-after consultant and keynote speaker at national and international conferences. In addition to his research and teaching, Dr. Delen shapes the future of his field as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Business Analytics and AI in Business (Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence), and as a senior or associate editor for several other top-tier journals. His exceptional contributions have been recognized through numerous federal grants and awards—including honors as an eminent professor, Fulbright scholar, Regents’ Distinguished Teacher and Researcher, President’s Outstanding Researcher, and Big Data Mentor.
Presentation Title: Making Sense of AI, Data Science, and the Future of Decision-Making
Abstract:
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, big data, and business intelligence—these terms dominate conversations in industry and academia alike. Yet, for many, they remain blurred together, creating confusion about what each truly means and how they differ. This keynote aims to cut through the noise by demystifying these concepts, clarifying where they overlap, and—most importantly—showing where their real power lies. Through vivid, real-world examples drawn from healthcare, education, entertainment, and beyond, the talk will reveal how organizations are turning data into meaningful insight and competitive advantage. Rather than framing data science as just another buzzword, we’ll explore its feasibility, practical applications, and enduring value proposition as a driver of innovation. By the end, participants will not only understand the distinctions between the terms but also see how data-driven strategies are shaping industries and solving pressing global challenges. Join us for a pragmatic journey that bridges technical depth with approachable clarity—designed to empower leaders, practitioners, and innovators to see through the jargon and unlock the real promise of AI and data science.
11:30 am – 12:00 pm, July 20, 2026 – Keynote
Dr. José Carlos de Sá (PhD)
Associate Professor
Recognized Specialist in Quality Management
Programme Coordinator, Postgraduate Programme in Lean Six Sigma
Engineering School of Porto (ISEP), Polytechnic of Porto, Portugal
José Carlos de Sá is an Associate Professor at the Porto School of Engineering (ISEP), Polytechnic of Porto, and a Visiting Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, Portugal, with over 20 years of experience in higher education. He holds a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Minho (Portugal). José Carlos de Sá began his industrial career in 1998, initially as a junior consultant, later serving as Production and Quality Director in a multinational company. From 2004 to 2020, he worked extensively with industrial companies as a Senior Specialist Consultant on projects focused on safety improvement, waste reduction, and productivity enhancement. He started teaching in higher education in 2006 and has been a full-time lecturer at ISEP since 2020. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at Lusófona University (Porto) and ISAG – European Business School. He is a researcher at LAETA (INEGI, Portugal). In June 2015, he was awarded the Portuguese Specialist Title in Quality Management by the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, a nationally regulated professional-academic recognition granted after public examination by an independent doctoral-level jury. This prestigious title is only conferred to individuals with over ten years of full-time industrial experience and distinguished applied research in the field, in recognition of their significant contributions to quality management and continuous improvement. He has published over 135 articles (WoS + Scopus), edited several books, participated in European projects, and has been invited as a keynote speaker at international conferences. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Technological Sustainability and of the Editorial Board of the journal System Safety: Human – Technical – Facility – Environment.
12:00 pm, July 20, 2026 – Keynote
Dr. Olga Battaïa
Professor
Operations Management and Information Systems Department
KEDGE Business School
Campus Bordeaux, France
12:30 pm, July 20, 2026 – Keynote
Industry Keynote
Day 21, 2026 (Day 2)
10:30 – 11:00 am, July 21, 2026 – Keynote
Gemma Berenguer, Ph.D.
Ramón y Cajal Fellow
Associate Professor
Vice Dean of the Bachelor in Management and Technology
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain)
Professor Berenguer is a Ramón y Cajal Fellow and received her Ph.D. in Operations Research at the University of California, Berkeley. She also holds an M.Eng. in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (ZLC), an M.S. in Economics (Barcelona GSE), and an undergraduate degree in Mathematics (UPC BarcelonaTech). Before joining UC3M, she was an Assistant Professor at the Krannert School of Management, Purdue University.
Professor Berenguer’s major research topics are nonprofit supply chain management, sustainable operations, and supply chain design. She teaches at the undergraduate, Master, and Executive levels in the areas of Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and Sustainable and Socially Responsible Operations. She has experience collaborating with private, public and nonprofit organizations in the global healthcare, consumer goods, transportation, electronic goods, and solar energy sectors. She has published in journals such as Management Science, Operations Research, M&SOM, Production and Operations Management (POM), and Journal of Operations Management. She serves as Associate Editor at Operations Research Journal, Senior Editor at POM Journal, and is on the Editorial Review Board of the Decision Sciences Journal. Among different accomplishments, she has won the Skinner Best paper award at POM journal (2018) and the SOLA Informs Bi-annual Dissertation Award (2014).
Professor Berenguer is the Vice Dean of the Bachelor of Management and Technology at UC3M. She has served as the 2023 President of the Public Sector Operations Research (PSOR) Section at INFORMS and the Vice-President Europe at POMS (2022-2024).
11:00 – 11:30 am, July 21, 2026 – Keynote
Sinan Onal, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of Industrial Engineering
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (SIUE)
Edwardsville, Illinois, USA
Sinan Onal, Ph.D., is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). His work focuses on how AI and machine learning can be designed and deployed as part of real operational systems, with an emphasis on reliability, accountability, and measurable outcomes. His research interests include human-centered AI in healthcare operations and data-driven decision support for early identification and follow-up pathways. A key application area in his group is gait-based analysis (iGAIT) as a scalable signal to support earlier screening and referral workflows, especially when stakeholders extend beyond the clinic to include families, schools, payers, and public agencies. He also works on AI-enabled quality and inspection systems, applying computer vision and statistical learning to improve process performance and product quality in industrial settings.
Dr. Onal has been active in the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), serving as President of the Data Analytics & Information Systems (DAIS) Division, as a Board Director, and as Chairperson for DAIS-related activities at the IISE Annual Conference. His recognitions include the SIUE Teaching Excellence Award, the SIU System Collaboration Award, the SIU Faculty Collaborations Award, the Hoppe Research Professor Award, Outstanding IE Teaching Awards, the IISE Energy Systems Division Best Paper Award, an invited speaker role for the Service-Learning Workshop at Arizona State University, and selection for the Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium at the National Academies’ Beckman Center.
Presentation Title: A Network Operating System for AI-Enabled Early Diagnosis: Architecture, Orchestration, and Governance
Abstract: Early diagnosis is often discussed as a prediction problem, but in practice it is a coordination problem. Signals may exist across home, school, and clinical settings, yet delays occur when ownership is unclear, handoffs fail, and follow-up actions are not completed. This keynote presents a forward-looking framework for AI-enabled early diagnosis ecosystems that treats early diagnosis as a closed-loop network operation rather than a stand-alone model output. The proposed “Network OS” functions as a coordination layer for the screening-to-services pathway, integrating multi-source signal capture, uncertainty-aware AI triage to support safe prioritization under limited capacity, and orchestration that assigns an owner, deadline, escalation, and closure for each next step. Trust and governance mechanisms such as consent, access control, audit trails, and monitoring are embedded to support safe adoption and scaling. A learning loop uses system-level outcomes to update both models and workflows over time. Operationalization is illustrated through iGAIT, where gait-based signals provide a scalable input that can support earlier routing to screening, evaluation, and services across families, schools, clinicians, payers, and public agencies. The keynote defines outcome measures as timeliness, closed-loop completion, equity gaps, and workforce burden and outlines a pilot implementation and evaluation plan centered on continuous monitoring.
11:30 -12:00 am, July 21, 2026 – Keynote
Dr. Keivan Amirbagheri
Head, Department of Management Engineering
Escola Universitària Salesiana de Sarrià (EUSS School of Engineering)
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Dr. Keivan Amirbagheri is the Head of the Department of Management Engineering (Industrial Organization) at the Escola Universitària Salesiana de Sarrià (EUSS School of Engineering), affiliated with the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He holds a Ph.D. in Business from the University of Barcelona (2019) and a Master’s degree in Research in Business (2014) from the same institution. His educational background also includes an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering with a specialization in Industrial Production, and a degree in Executive Administration with a focus on Strategic Administration.
Dr. Amirbagheri’s research interests lie at the intersection of operations management, sustainability, and decision-making sciences. He specializes in Supply Chain Management, particularly Green Supply Chain and Humanitarian Supply Chain operations. He is also a recognized expert in the application of bibliometric analysis to map scientific trends in environmental sciences and engineering, as well as the use of Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) operators as decision-making tools in business and environmental contexts.
In addition to his administrative role, Dr. Amirbagheri teaches advanced quantitative methods for management to engineering students. He is an active researcher with publications in high-impact journals, including Computers & Industrial Engineering, Energy for Sustainable Development, Environment and Behavior, and Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy. His work often explores the evolution of research in sustainability, environmental accounting, and the integration of fuzzy logic in industrial decision-making. He actively collaborates with international researchers from institutions in Chile, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
12:00 – 12:30 pm, July 21, 2026 – Keynote
12:30 – 1:00 pm, July 21, 2026 – Keynote
Industry Keynote
July 22, 2026 (Day 3)
10:3o – 11:00 am, July 22, 2026 – Keynote
Professor Charles Mbohwa, Ph.D. (IEOM President 2025 – 2026)
Distinguished Professor
University of South Africa (UNISA)
Pretoria, South Africa
Past Pro-VC, University of Zimbabwe
Former Executive Dean, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg
Professor Charles Mbohwa is a Visiting Professor at University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He was a Pro-Vice Chancellor Strategic Partnerships and Industrialisation at University of Zimbabwe and an affiliated Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. He is an established researcher and professor in the field of sustainability engineering and energy. He was the Chairman and Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Zimbabwe from 1994 to 1997 and was Vice-Dean of Postgraduate Studies Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Johannesburg from 2014 to 2017. He has published more than 350 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, 10 book chapters and three books. He has a Scopus h-index of 11 and Google Scholar h-index of 14. Upon graduating with his BSc Honours in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Zimbabwe in 1986, he was employed as a mechanical engineer by the National Railways of Zimbabwe. He holds a Masters in Operations Management and Manufacturing Systems from University of Nottingham and completed his doctoral studies at Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology in Japan. He was a Fulbright Scholar visiting the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute at the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, a Japan Foundation Fellow, is a Fellow of the Zimbabwean Institution of Engineers and is a registered mechanical engineer with the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe. He has been a collaborator in projects of the United Nations Environment Programme. He has also visited many countries on research and training engagements including the United Kingdom, Japan, German, France, the USA, Brazil, Sweden, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mauritius, Austria, the Netherlands, Uganda, Namibia and Australia. He has had several awards including British Council Scholarship, Japanese Foundation Fellowship, Kubota Foundation Fellowship; Fulbright Fellowship.
11:00 – 11:30 am, July 22, 2026 – Keynote
Dr. Hiroyuki Goto
Full Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Hosei University
Koganei, Tokyo
Japan
Hiroyuki Goto is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Hosei University, Japan. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from The University of Tokyo in 1995 and 1997, respectively. He received his D.E degree from Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology in 2004. His research and teaching interests include operations research, geographic information science, and high-performance computing.
11:30 am – 12:00 pm, July 22, 2026 – Keynote
Guiping Hu, PhD
Professor and Department Chair
Systems Engineering & Operations Research
College of Engineering and Computing
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia, United States
Short biography:
Dr. Guiping Hu is a Professor and Department Chair of Systems Engineering and Operations Research at George Mason University. During 2023 – 2025, she served as the School Head of Industrial Engineering and Management at Oklahoma State University. During 2022-2023, she served as the Associate Chair of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at Iowa State University where she was a faculty from 2009-2023. Dr. Hu’s research has been supported by NSF, USDA, DOE, and DOD with over $12M funding. She has published over 100 journal articles and 50 conference proceedings. She is an Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Fellow, ELATES fellow, and an NSF IAspire Leadership Academy Fellow.
Keynote Title: System thinking to address trans-disciplinary societal challenges
Abstract: The landscape in research for industry and service sectors continues to evolve rapidly, driven by emerging opportunities and challenges with significant societal implications. As a pivotal approach to embracing these challenges and opportunities, trans-disciplinary research plays an increasingly important role, especially as systems become borderless and dynamic. During this process, it is critical to embrace and adopt system thinking to address trans-disciplinary service challenges. Dr. Hu will share an overview of industrial and service systems along with the digitalization in the era of artificial intelligence and digital twin adoption. Application domains will include supply chain design, manufacturing production, renewable energy production, sustainable agriculture, and healthcare.
12:00 – 12:30 pm, July 22, 2026 – Keynote
12:30 – 1:00 pm, July 22, 2026 – Keynote
Industry Keynotes